Taylor to speak on ‘QR’ in Watch Hill

Taylor to speak on ‘QR’ in Watch Hill

Corrine Taylor

November 8, 2013 11:50AM
By NANCY BURNS-FUSARO
Sun Staff Writer

WESTERLY — Corrine Taylor laughs when she says she likes “W’s and firsts.”

Taylor, a graduate of Westerly High School, William and Mary, and the University of Wisconsin, teaches at Wellesely College and will be speaking this week at the Watch Hill Chapel. Chuckling about the number of W’s in her alma maters, Taylor said it will be the first time she’ll be speaking at the chapel and the first time she’ll be a guest of the Westerly College Club.

“I’m excited,” said Taylor, the daughter of Marilyn Nardone, of Westerly, who graduated from Westerly High School in 1984. And while Taylor, who is the director of the Quantitative Reasoning Program at Wellesley, readily admits that the title of her topic — “Quantitative World, The Ability to Think” — may sound less than exciting, it can be fascinating and beneficial to just about everyone, she said.

Taylor said she plans to talk about the importance of developing the ability to think clearly and critically in oder to solve the pressing issues of the day — from environmental to political to economic — and offer tips on how best it can be accomplished.

Quantitative reasoning, she said, or “QR,” not only helps students prepare for all courses of study, but is used in almost every profession and by all of us in every day life — from personal finances, to journalism to art to law to language to history.

“I just gave a talk about QR and the arts,” said Taylor, an art history fan who speaks to people and educators across the country in an effort to help “all citizens possess the power and habit of mind to search out quantitative information, critique it, reflect upon it and apply it in their public, personal and professional lives.”

An economics major, Taylor, who just returned from Houston where she gave a speech tying together QR and environmental sustainability, says she likes to think of herself as more of a “Renaissance woman, and an ambassador for using QR across all disciplines.”

After all, she said, everyone has to think about new ways to sustain the planet.

Taylor will be speaking on Wednesday at 1 p.m. in the Undercroft of the Watch Hill Chapel. Her talk, sponsored by the Westerly College Club, is free and open to the public.